Tidbits and links! If you have any to suggest, or a photo to showcase on these posts, e-mail me at thebuzzer@translink.ca! I’m especially in need of good photos to showcase.

• You may have seen this before, but the video above shows a proposed Chinese bus that straddles traffic! Go here to read a translation of the audio. (thanks Peter, Reva, and David!)
• SkyTrain staff find and return a $200,000 cheque to its owner — wow!
• Aha — an article about the B.C. government’s Highway 99 transit information display program!
• BEST and the SFU City program are hosting a launch for the new book Carjacked on Thursday August 12. Find out more about the book and reserve your spot at the launch!
• An interview with New Yorker writer David Owen, who has written a book about how high-density living is more energy efficient. (thanks bella_b)
• The Vancouver Sun ran a series a little while back on police statistics for the SkyTrain system. There’s three stories and several interesting charts: have a look here.
• Erick over at Regarding Place has a lovely and insightful transit map comparing 21 rail rapid transit systems worldwide.
• From last year: a PEI couple finds love on transit (and gets married on the bus!)
• It looks like our system is getting mentioned as Toronto sorts out its transit smartcard program. According to the Globe and Mail, our smartcard plan leaves Toronto’s in the dust. And the Toronto Star is urging the TTC to stick with Ontario’s Presto Smartcard.
• Super interesting interview with the designer of the NYC Kick Map, a super popular unofficial map of New York’s subway system.
• Jarrett Walker notes: here’s coverage of his talk in Seattle, and an interview with On The Coast. He’s also got some more fantastic posts on Human Transit: check out his frequency mapping post and this note about how the city of Ottawa didn’t tell its bus system about major construction (with nutty results)!
• A better design for your car’s brake and accelerator pedals?
• Total question mark for this tidbit: apparently the influx of cycling initiatives brings us closer to U.N. control?
• An even stranger item from the Boston Globe: police cars are apparently often struck by other cars while doing traffic stops and other tasks.
• Apple is maybe developing a smart bicycle. (thanks to kottke.org)
• Gah — apparently there was a 70-person brawl on the Washington D.C. Metro!
• Freakonomics post on subway farechecking in Berlin.
• Tokyo subway manners posters, old and new. (thanks dale42)
• Gordon Price has some updates from the Annals of Motordom: here’s one and here’s two.